Two striking pieces of architecture guard the ascent to Dornach: the Goetheanum, the enormous and unconventional reinforced-concrete building of the Anthroposophical Movement, and the stately ruins of Dorneck Castle. After eight sharp bends in the woods, the dry high plateau of Gempen is a surprise, a sunny recreational paradise for the people of Basel. A stream babbles in the long basin, hundreds of cherry trees, the bedrock here is porous karst limestone. More babbles are heard in the Nickelodeon Museum at Seewen.

The Jura passes are steep, quiet Nunningerberg rewards you with a rich orchid world, then the Passwang with scenic views of the terraced Jura ridges, slowly getting lost in the haze. The holiday-home-free Solothurn Jura protected zone, created in 1942, provides moments of peace. Anyone with hair tousled from the valley run will find hirsute history in the Haar&Kamm (Hair & Comb) Museum in Mümliswil.

Through two narrow, rugged gorges, always overlooked by castles and fortresses, to meet the Mittelland warehouse landscape. After the Aare bridge, grinning exotic animals from long ago on the façade of the animal house in Aarwangen. Langenthal, your average small Swiss town, a favourite spot for holding surveys. The wide valley floor of the winding Langete with meadowland still subject to regular flooding. Oberaargau remains flat before the hilly Napf makes its presence felt in Huttwil.